Stealing Iceland

When the EMV chip cards were introduced they were heralded as a powerful tool in stopping fraud. Those that trumpeted this claim were right and they were wrong. Cloning the EMV cards and stealing information off of them has become much more difficult and that has forced thieves to take a new avenue of approach. Thieves cannot simply walk into a store and use a stolen card as easily as they could ten years ago, that much at least has changed. Unfortunately very little has changed in the online marketplace and the amount of fraud seen in that medium is staggering.

A recent study conducted found that identity theft incidents rose by 16% during 2016 affecting 15.4 million victims and costing those victims 16 billion dollars. For the past few years the number of victims had held steady at around 13 million which was seen as proof that the EMV cards were working, and while they were not stopping all identity theft they were helping.

The amount stolen is a staggering amount. It comes out to about $35,000 per minute which means one could pay for four years at Harvard with room and board in about eight minutes. There are countries in this world that do not have a GDP of 16 billion dollars and that total is the approximate GDP of Iceland. To put this further in perspective Michael Dell, whose computer product you might be reading this on, is worth 16 billion dollars. Also for 16 billion you could build yourself the US Navy’s latest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and still have a cool 3 billion left over. If philanthropy is more your thing the cleanup for Hurricane Sandy cost about 16 billion dollars. This was 700 million dollars more than last year, so if the EMV chips were so helpful what has happened?

Simply put the thieves have moved away from where the chip comes into play and are hiding behind a computer screen. Remember the chip is useless when it comes to e-commerce as there is no need to dip the card. This realm also has another benefit for the crook as they will not come face to face with a vigilant merchant or their security cameras and risk being caught red handed. This is a win-win for the fraudsters. Thieves can also take over accounts as we see with the rash of data breaches so only the most vigilant consumers will notice that something is amiss. Considering that most people do not monitor all of their accounts daily this should not come as a shock.

E-commerce is a large part of what drives the modern economy. 22 trillion dollars changed hands last year via the Internet and that number is only expected to rise. While 16 billion dollars may only be a drop in the bucket to that total it is still a significant amount and can lead to no good. The criminal element of our society will quickly adapt to any change and may do so in an unexpected fashion as they are doing now. It just goes to show that there is no 100% surefire way to stop fraud and the only certainty is that criminals will adapt to whatever is thrown at them.